Midnight
by Shade Mimir
Summary: With the Fire Lord defeated, Aang searches for his friends. Zuko, however proves the most difficult to locate... Warnings: drabble'ish, character deaths


**A/N:** Reuploaded, because I did something stupid when tweaking the story content...

Well, this was originally written for a contest that I simply got tired of waiting on. The due date was the 29th and there has been no update since despite questioning. This is a personal pet peeve of mine, so I've taken my entry elsewhere.

**Midnight**

By Shade Mimir

It was all unnaturally tangible.

The sounds were clearer. The smells were sharper. The night was darker, and the fire was all the brighter for it.

"Want some?" Zuko asked, offering Aang a bag of what he recognized as Flaming Fire Flakes.

Aang was put off by trying them, though intrigued that he might be able to. For once, sensibility won over curiosity. "No thanks."

Fire Nation festivals were so colorful - at least in the respect of red, orange, and varying hues of yellow. Stalls of masks and games and odd little trinkets were filled with patrons. Children laughed and cheered, racing around long, winding dancing dragons or enthralled by puppet shows.

"After all that searching, I never thought I'd find you here," Aang admitted, with a side-long glance to his friend.

Zuko looked oddly at home in the black and red robes. Somehow, even with the mask on, Aang had known it was him. The painted mask was staring off into the forest behind them, staying in place at the back of Zuko's head as he watched a small girl at one booths.

"_She _likes it here." Zuko seemed set on quashing any branching out on this topic of conversation before it could even begin. "Have you found anyone else you know here?"

The question struck at a place in Aang that was still quite raw. He nodded anyway and his voice cracked ever-so-slightly when he spoke, "Several, yeah."

"Anyone I know?" Zuko asked, and Aang found his eyes to be sympathetic as he looked up again.

"Yeah," he repeated, doing his best to manage a smile that he hoped was convincing. "Well, not really- not anymore, I guess. You're sort of the only one left, that I know of." Aang noticed Zuko watching the girl again. Though he realized that might have been as much of an answer as he was going to get, he pressed on anyway, "Aren't you thinking of moving on any time soon?"

Aang felt the disappointment tighten in his chest as Zuko shook his head. Before any more questions could be raised, there was the slight shrugging of shoulders.

"I think it hurt her more than I realized," Zuko admitted awkwardly. "When mother left, I always just sort of assumed I was the only one who really cared. And before that..." he trailed off, never having been particularly eloquent when it came to expressing matters close-to-heart.

"It's not your fault though!" Aang blurted out, perhaps a little to quickly. Zuko gave him a surprised look and at the booth across from them, the young girl glanced back.

"I don't think I ever said I thought it was my fault to begin with." Amusement played over Zuko's features as Aang pretended to suddenly be very interested in the state of his left shoe.

"I didn't mean-" Aang paused with a somewhat frustrated sigh. "I just think that if that was all that was _bothering_ her..." It didn't seem like his place to tell Zuko what to do with the issue at hand.. He chose his words delicately and trailed off as his friend had. There was no right way to word any of this, and Aang was a little afraid he would be doing the same thing had their roles been reversed.

Luckily, Zuko seemed to get the idea anyway. "What you meant is that's she's just out of her mind, right? Anything could have set her off."

That was _exactly_ what Aang had meant. "Sort of."

Zuko stood, somehow conscious of the light fog rolling in from the forests while at the same time still being completely oblivious to it. It seemed that even without being told, he knew that it was time for Aang to be on his way.

"Come on, Avatar. If you were me, you couldn't just leave either." It wasn't a question, but Aang gave it some consideration anyway. Grudgingly, he decided that Zuko was right and conceded with a glum, defeated sort of nod.

"That's not like you either. After everything in the Fire Nation... most people went their separate ways but I _know_ you're not alone."

Aang felt the weight of the hand on his shoulder. In-spite of everything else, it was very real. "I know," he said quietly. "I just... I want everything to be the way it was again."

There was no need for Zuko to correct him again, and Aang was relieved to find that a hug was met with no resistance. He did, however, hear snickering. The girl stood nearby, a brightly painted serpentine mask covering everything but her mouth. The tiny serpent made a point to stick out her tongue, head lolling dramatically off to one side to express her disgust and boredom with such displays of affection.

"Let's go, Zuzu," she urged, flinging a handful of small pebble-like objects from a bag and towards their feet to speed up the process.

Aang gave a startled yelp as they exploded on impact. A second yelp came as Zuko pulled him around as a shield when a second handful was deployed. Maybe he should have been annoyed as he struggled against Zuko's arms. It was difficult to stop grinning, however when he could see the smiles on the faces of the other two.

"I'm going, I'm going!" Aang managed an almost graceful escape as the girl ceased her fire.

"See you around, Aang," Zuko said, his voice clear though he was getting more and more difficult to see in the rising fog.

Though Aang was almost certain he was stationary, it seemed as if he was getting further and further away. The festival continued as if unhindered by the weather, and Aang could still see it faintly from above. The girl was tugging impatiently at Zuko's arm, and he fixed his attention on her as Aang continued to drift away. Zuko reached back, pulling his mask down over his face again.

Suddenly faced with a partner, roughly, her own age and size, the girl snatched him by the wrist and hurried off into the denser recesses of the the fog. Aang could hear the children's laughter echoing over the expansive swamp he was suddenly faced with.

Aang stared off into the distance fondly before heaving a sigh and heading toward the rock face where he could already spot his body seated.

_At least I'll have something to tell the others now_, Aang decided, as both bodies merged and he opened his eyes to the cool night sky above.

When all they had left were stories, Aang was content for even the haziest of happy endings.

**Edit:** All right, I just got home and noticed a review in which this story confused someone. To clarify, yes, this takes place in the Spirit World. The rules of reincarnation are left pretty open for interpretation in the show so I shaped them to fit my needs. Yes, Azula is the little girl.

I ran this fic by my boyfriend weeks ago, (He hardly ever understands anything.) and he caught on easily enough. I thought it was easy enough to follow, but my apologies if it left you confused. With this said, I hope to see no more "wtf?" reviews XD. If you're still in the dark, might I humbly suggest reading it through again? I tried to leave subtle hints throughout.


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